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Playing earning can be done with a technique I have described earlier. Look for companies announcing earnings the week of option expiration. If you expect an upward surprise, buy an ATM call option. After the anticipated move, sell the underlying short. You lock in your upside (hopefully with...

Yes I do remember our discussion. It actually made its way into an emag for option traders.

Lots of pencil and paper and a calculator. I am pretty good using this software for analysis.

On IB, there is a "check margin" feature. If I remember correctly, this feature needs to be activated. I use it all the time. It is necessary for writing options so you know the amount of initial margin all the time. And as you know, margin is updated throughout the day and into the...

I recently read an interesting article that compared buy and hold vs. short straddles (involving the SPY). The article basically stated that buy and hold is best with the VIX greater than 25 and the short straddle works best in the 18-25 range. I took the data and used bull put spreads deep OTM...

In a market like this, I would buy a ZB future instead of trying to exit the long put in this "unfair" market. By buying the ZB, you lock in a profit. If the ZB continues to fall, you lock in your 10 points (minus the 3 15/64). If it rises and finishes ATM or slightly OTM, you get the same...

I trade buy and sell futures options on the ES. The premiums received are instantly added to my account, but it is held in the commodity portion of the account, and it is not considered available funds until the contract expires or is bought back. If interest was available, I would earn it on...

I have done many covered calls over the years. I can understand the desire to get out of the stock before the weekend of expiration. My broker allows naked call writing. If the stock shows a profit and the call is OTM, I sell the stock on Friday of expiration week and allow the short OTM call...

Any strategy works, if it is the correct stategy for the times. Last year, I did four covered puts using the ES and a front month PUT that was slightly ITM. Placed this trade at the close of Friday--the Friday before MLK's b-day. The market tanked 60 points..I was up about 36 points (60...

An interesting observation: The VIX at 820 (the ES close on 2-13) is lower than when the ES closed at 863.25 on 1-12. Looks to me that traders are getting used to being kicked in the nuts. So, an iron condor approach or even a bull put spread (DOTM) looks good here. As long as the ES stays...

One way to play this: Buy the front month ATM put. Once the SPY has made its expected move, buy the SPY (underlying). This works well the week of expiration--which I am assuming is your time frame. If the SPY moves against you, you lose the PUT premium (for all intents and purposes). If the...

The one thing I do agree with Cramer: reinstating the Uptick rule. The vehicles are fine. Reinstating the uptick rule and enforcing existing regulations really levels the playing field.

I like some of the elements of the suggested funds. At this time, I do own LQD. My goal is high current income with preservation of capital. As such, I added PGX (investment grade preferred stocks). High income and a speculative play on the banks (JPM, BAC, WFC, HSBC). I also added two...

Technically, the difference between the cash market and the futures are the dividends you would earn if you held the s&p 500 stocks. Obviously, when the futures contract is close to expiration the spread is narrowest. Do you follow fair value? The ES trades basically 24/7. So, if the ES goes...

Good explanation. As I previously mentioned: going one handle ITM ($60.00 stock, JAN 10 55 CALL with premium of $9.40), you get optimal time value ($4.40 premium for the year; that's a 7.3% return right there if the stock finished ITM) and decent downside protection (16%). Plus, since I like...

Every so often, I run a stress test at IB for my trading portfolio. It calculates what happens to the portfolio in extreme situations as well as more likely scenarios. It calculates what happens if the underlying or the stock moves -30%, -20%, -10%, +3%, +10%, +20% and +30%. Unfortunately...

On every January 1 or January 2, I close out my futures options and reenter them at the close as of December 31 (mark-to-market accounting). So, I go to account statement for December 31. All of the cash in my commodities column as well as my option positions are missing and not accounted...

On every January 1 or January 2, I close out my futures options and reenter them at the close as of December 31 (mark-to-market accounting). So, I go to account statement for December 31. All of the cash in my commodities column as well as my option positions are missing and not accounted...

Here is another view I have used. The theme here is to do covered calls or buy-writes on stock YOU WANT TO OWN. Let me give another example. Take JNJ. Buy 100 sh of JNJ and write one call one handle ITM. The only purpose of this call is downward protection PERIOD. This is not a speculative...